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MEDIA TAKE OUT.COM DISHIN' THE DIRT ON AFRICAN AMERICAN CELEBS: But Skeptics say It's All Lies (Pt. 2)
*For Part 1 of this story, click HERE.
Today, in Part 2, among other things, Fred Mwangaguhunga, owner of MediaTakeOut.com, answers his critics, in particular, his fellow bloggers who accuse him of fabricating stories. He says thy're just jealous and wish they had it going on like he does.
"Well I think that, as far as the blogs go, it's hard to take credibility for someone who says you're making something up...An insider that knows things can then say this is true, this is not. If you have no idea what's going on in the industry...who's seeing who...who's gone to what party, then you really can't comment on what someone knows...But we do get particular journalists who don't particularly like Media Take Out. I mean we don't have the best reputation among journalists and I'm sure you know that and I can attribute that to three things. One...we have just been tremendously popular over the last year. And I think whenever you are so popular there breeds a certain amount of animosity with it...I also think that most people in journalism were groomed the same way. They all started off as interns at some magazine, they all know each other and it's sort of a tight-knit community. And I'm really not a part of that community... I kind of popped in on the scene and here I am taking off... But I think the biggest part of it is I'm doing something, Media Take Out, that most journalists can't do...you might have a journalist at...Essence Magazine and that journalist might really want to write an article on say, Mary J. Blige and Kendu's marriage but they can't...because...Essence needs MJB to be on the cover two or three times a year and they know that if they write that article about Mary, she won't be on the cover... And the same kind of goes for radio. The radio DJ might want to talk about Jay-Z and Rihanna's relationship but there's institutional pressure that Jay-Z can put on that DJ from saying what it is they need to say."
For the record, while preparing this story for EUR, I sent a call out to a number of notable journalists to see if they had ever heard of MTO and what they thought of it. The fact that NOT ONE OF THEM responded on the subject speaks volumes. And somehow I don't get the feeling it has anything to do with jealousy.
Continuing on with Media Take Out's lack of "institutionalized pressure" and their ability to comment without consequence, Mwangaguhunga concludes: "Media Take Out, we don't care. We owe nothing to Beyonce or Jay-Z or Mary J or anyone else. If they can do nothing to us other than sue us, which we are comfortable with, there's no quick pro quo or unwritten pro quo going on between us so...We have a freedom that they [journalists and DJs] don't."
Bailey, by now seeking clarity just for clarity sake reiterates..."So you're saying that you can write a story and not have any consequences... you don't have to worry about advertisers, getting an interview, and so on and so forth?
"Right," asserts Mwangaguhunga. "...six months ago we could hardly get any publicist on the phone. Now we can get almost every publicist on the phone... And that's strictly because of our popularity. "...six months ago we couldn't find one person in the industry to interview. Now we can interview almost anyone in the industry with the exception of a handful...And we let people know, though, for example, if we're going to interview Ne-Yo we're going to ask him about homosexuality. If he doesn't want to talk about that then he's just not going to talk to Media Take Out."
Sounds like Fred was in "Wishful Thinking 101: Fake it Til' you Make It!" class. You know the course that taught, "Say what you wish to be. Gullible people will read it and assume it is and one day it may come true?"
Bailey, clearly intrigued, pushes further asking if Ne-Yo has indeed spoken with Media TakeOut.com...
"No, I'm not sure he's interested," responds Mwangaguhunga.
But the site is definitely making some noise. In fact, just last week writer Erik Gunther named them the #2 hottest gossip site; right behind the popular Perez Hilton, whose tight grip on the #1 spot doesn't seem to be slipping anytime soon. "...He pulls in nearly four times as many searches as the #2 spot," writes Gunther, about Perez' rule adding, "...and he's the place to go when Web denizens need their fix of dirt."
Still, #2 ain't too shabby a place to be, even in gossip, one would guess. And Media TakeOut.com is very proud of their accomplishments. Let's see, their "news" have included being the first to announce the "Breakup of Outkast," (Andre 3000 looked Lee Bailey right in the eye and told him this rumor was "a piece of sh__!") And by the way, Mr. Mwangaguhunga considers that conversation a 'personal response' to him). MTO.com "revealed" that "Jamie Foxx / Kanye West had backstage drama at the awards show" (Foxx's publicist nearly bit off Bailey's head for citing this in EUR, calling it an outright lie; MTO.com announced the "Jay-Z / Rihanna soiree."
"We stand 100% behind the accuracy of every one of our stories..."
(Bailey interrupts) "How can you stand a 100% behind the accuracy when...you're relying on other people telling you something? You don't know when they're making something up." Mwangaguhunga argues this point by providing the following example...
"...When the New York Times reports on what's going on in Iraq, they're reporting on what someone is saying. Someone in Iraq is saying 'Hey there is a lot of bombs down here and someone is writing it down ..."
(Bailey) "No but I think N Y Times has reporters in Iraq ..."
(Mwangaguhunga) "Right, but the reporters on the ground are talking to people in Iraq who are giving them the stories."
This may be one of those times when at least one journalism class may have come in handy.
"So it's still someone that's saying something and you have to determine whether what the person is saying is truthful or not Mwangaguhunga continues. "And we've become extremely good at that. I mean to give you an idea of how far we've gone we've actually retained a polygraph expert. We've used him. We have one here in New York and we have one in L. A. And we've used him frequently."
An example would be what?
"I don't really want to get into it but, I'll tell you one that didn't make it onto Media Take Out. There was one story about a guy who was sexually abused as a child by a popular African American artist, and I don't want to get into exactly who it was ...and the person claimed that they were molested and ended up being taken away from their home by ACS" (I believe he means DCS) "...we went to ACS, we talked to the people over at ACS. Their story checked out. The person told us intimate details about this artist that turned out to be true...We then spoke to a person that was intimately close with the artist and that person while they wouldn't confirm the story they said that they suspected it to be true. Now with that I think most publications would have gone to print but Media Take Out didn't. We said that this is such an allegation that could destroy this artist that we're going to take it a step further and we took that person to a polygraph expert and they ended up failing the exam."
He continues...
"So that is the level of protection that we go to, you have to think, I'm an attorney I'm not just looking at this as 'can we get away with this or not,' the only defense that I'm interested in asserting in the case if we go to court is, is the defense the truth and every time that we do publish the story, we do it and we print it with the idea that there's going to be a legal challenge to it and I can tell you that there isn't a week that goes by that we don't get a legal paper on this desk that says 'take down this article it's a bunch of lies' --and there isn't a week that goes by where we don't send them a letter back saying 'this is the truth and if you think it's a lie then sue us' and there isn't a week that goes by that the person disappears...I mean you really have to think, well, if we are just sitting over here making up these lies like everyone is saying then why isn't it that anyone's suing us? We get threatened to be sued all the time, so why hasn't it happened? ...The reason why it hasn't happened is because we are a 100% accurate."
Good Lord!
By now Bailey, dumbfounded, sounds more like Simon Cowell following a Sanjiya performance, "What can I say? You're telling your side of the story."
DeBorah B. Pryor is a freelance Journalist whose work appears often in EUR and a variety of national and local publications. Her work as a journalist has taken her all over the world, most recently to Southern Africa. She also presides over The Art of Communication: Public speaking for private people, a unique series of workshops conducted in the Los Angeles area and geared to empower support staff to succeed in today’s challenging workplace environment. To learn about upcoming workshops Email: DeBorah@Dpryorpresents.com
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